At the risk of offending the "Cut & Paste Police", here's a rather lengthy but prophetic article written in 2002 for the Heritage Foundation by James Phillips, with a short excerpt to offer an idea of the subject matter:
"...al-Qaeda may seek to regroup in another country where it could count on some degree of local support.
Somalia is such a place. It is a failed state whose lawless anarchy would permit terrorists to operate relatively freely. The al-Qaeda network has operated there in the past and has longstanding ties to a small minority of Somali Islamists, with which it has worked since the early 1990s.
Somalia also has a long seacoast with numerous unpatrolled ports that could provide easy entry for al-Qaeda terrorists fleeing from Afghanistan via Pakistan or Iran by sea. The U.S. Navy intercepted at least one ship that reportedly transported fugitive al-Qaeda operatives who escaped from a Pakistani port inside a shipping container. 2 U.S. intelligence officials believe that bin Laden owns a number of ships, one of which is suspected of transporting some of the explosives used in the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 3 Shortly after September 11, U.S. intelligence officials received reports that bin Laden himself planned to move from Afghanistan to Somalia or had already done so."
Somalia and al-Qaeda: Implications for the War on Terrorism
Everybody likes to offer opinions and theories, so here's mine. Suppose these "pirates" are really minions of Al Quaeda? Look at all the money they've raised from ransoms for their terrorist activities, all while the UN and it's member nations (including the US) wring their hands and worry about how to deal with the problem. Pretty smart concept if you ask me, and no single country wants to deal directly with the source of the problem on Somalian soil because these attacks are not "acts of war." Wait until a dirty suitcase bomb goes off at a college football game with 100,000 in attendance. Then maybe our political leaders will start to think about redefining what "act of war" should have meant and why getting involved in Somalia might have been in our national interest.
"...al-Qaeda may seek to regroup in another country where it could count on some degree of local support.
Somalia is such a place. It is a failed state whose lawless anarchy would permit terrorists to operate relatively freely. The al-Qaeda network has operated there in the past and has longstanding ties to a small minority of Somali Islamists, with which it has worked since the early 1990s.
Somalia also has a long seacoast with numerous unpatrolled ports that could provide easy entry for al-Qaeda terrorists fleeing from Afghanistan via Pakistan or Iran by sea. The U.S. Navy intercepted at least one ship that reportedly transported fugitive al-Qaeda operatives who escaped from a Pakistani port inside a shipping container. 2 U.S. intelligence officials believe that bin Laden owns a number of ships, one of which is suspected of transporting some of the explosives used in the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 3 Shortly after September 11, U.S. intelligence officials received reports that bin Laden himself planned to move from Afghanistan to Somalia or had already done so."
Somalia and al-Qaeda: Implications for the War on Terrorism
Everybody likes to offer opinions and theories, so here's mine. Suppose these "pirates" are really minions of Al Quaeda? Look at all the money they've raised from ransoms for their terrorist activities, all while the UN and it's member nations (including the US) wring their hands and worry about how to deal with the problem. Pretty smart concept if you ask me, and no single country wants to deal directly with the source of the problem on Somalian soil because these attacks are not "acts of war." Wait until a dirty suitcase bomb goes off at a college football game with 100,000 in attendance. Then maybe our political leaders will start to think about redefining what "act of war" should have meant and why getting involved in Somalia might have been in our national interest.
